Cannes 2025: Payal Kapadia back at gala as jury member, hints at trilogy after ‘All We Imagine As Light’ success

Payal Kapadia who is back at the Cannes Film Festival, this time as jury member, opened up about what the international film fest did for her directorial All We Imagine As Light.

Her feature film directorial, the Malayalam-Hindi film on two Mumbai-based Malayali nurses and their friendship, was the first from India to win the Grand Prix at Cannes last year.

Kapadia thanked the festival and film critics for their recognition of her film that went on to help secure distribution rights in India.

She is back at Cannes 2025 edition as a jury member of the panel led by French star Juliette Binoche. "Our film coming here in Cannes and getting the recognition and all of you writing about it really helped us to get the film out. Even the distribution in India was helped by that," Kapadia said during the opening press conference at Cannes.

"I'm really grateful. The one thing (you want) as a filmmaker is that your film should be watched by the people in your own country and everywhere else. So that was a really big bonus for me," she added.

All We Imagine as Light, distributed by Telugu film star Rana Daggubati's Spirit Media, first had a limited release in Kerala last September. It received rave reviews later as it opened nationwide.

Among other accolades Kapadia's film received were the Jury Grand Prize at Asia Pacific Screen Awards, Best International Feature at the Gotham Awards, Best International Film by the New York Film Critics Circle and Best Film at the Asian Film Awards. It was also nominated at the Golden Globe Awards in the Best Director and Best Foreign Language Film categories.

Kapadia spoke about her current work on two films and also hinted at a trilogy, saying, "I'm right now working on two films based on my city, which is Mumbai. So, to have a trilogy but with different characters. It's a city that's complex and full of contradictions. There's a lot for me to explore still and I need to get that out before I move on to anything else."